This is a long term problem.
System:
AMD K-6 233
Atrends 4050 (mamaboard)
128 ram

I upgraded the system from a 486 DX100
bought a new HD WD Caviar 4gig

I have tried unsucessfully to install a second HD as slave on this system
1st I tried installing my older 2.5 gig WD Caviar and the slave locked up after several hours.... NOW !!!!!

I have tried swapping the 2 drives trying each as the master - no luck
I have tried new cables - no luck
I tried moving the drives inside (maybe they were heating up) - no luck

The motherboard manual insist that if I have 2 drives they must be on the same IDE bus if I have any ATAPI devices (the Acer CD)

I reformated the drives, reinstalled them 1 at a time

Bottom line... after sometimes weeks,days or hours the slave locks up. When this occurs I can reboot, but the period of lock up gets shorter and shorter until I re-install the drives. then it last several weeks.
Until the process starts again.

? PCI Bus mastering problem?
? Bad IDE controller?
? BIOS?

I'm Pulling my hair out (whats left of it)

someone please help

Only think I can think of is maybe they are different types? ATA and DMA 33/66 maybe? Check the drive specs and see if they use different DMA modes. or is it ATA 33/66? I can't remember...Anyway, check the drive specs and see if they're different types.


Also check the BIOS settings for each drive, make sure they are correct for the drives. Look through the drive's specs, and take a trip to my site below, and look through the BIOS Survival Guide.

And the secondary drive just may be on its last legs...



------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)